The theoretical part of the course informs students about the history of microfluidic systems development and their potential in biological and biochemical analyses. Students will be introduced to the fundamental principles of microfluidic devices and to the main methods of their design. The main issues of the theoretical part are as follows: -History of microfluidic systems and their development - ?TAS systems, Lab-on-a-chip, BioMEMS - Fundamentals of physical principles of fluid mechanics in small scaled devices - The design technology and the materials for the preparation of microfluidic devices - Selected fields of use of microfluidic systems in biological applications The practical part is focused on specific design protocols and simple biological analyses by means of a prepared device. Laboratory protocols will be focused on the following working procedures: - Preparation of graphical designs of masks for UV lithography with graphics software - Preparation of substrates - substrates for fabrication of masks for UV-lithography. Chemical and ultrasonic cleaning. - Preparation of thin layers by sputtering method - preparation of seed layers and masks for electron beam lithography and UV-lithography, preparation of electrodes for electrochemical analysis. - Electron beam lithography - preparation of masks for UV-lithography using positive and negative resists. - UV lithography - preparation of masks for dry and wet etching and galvanic deposition, preparation of molds for soft lithography, microchannels fabrication. Positive and negative resists will be used. - Soft lithography - PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) casting - Completion of the microfluidic device design - setting connectors and tubes on the device and connecting it to a detection device - Analysis - a simple electrochemical or optical sample analysis in a prepared device will be performed
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